And Me

Food For Thought Friday: Fear

I have an operation coming up next Thursday. It’s pretty routine, nothing exceptional about it but since having kids I get irrational fears about stupid things that never worried me at all before. Like not waking up from a general anaesthetic or the plane crashing or getting in a car accident.

I think it is because I have heard so many tragic stories in recent years that it has started to play on my psychy. I know it’s ridiculous but that doesn’t stop the anxiety from popping up out of nowhere! Of course, it doesn’t stop us from hopping in the car and going places, nor is it going to get me to cancel my op but it can certainly play havoc on my anxiety levels. I love this quote though, it is certainly reflective of my fears which get bigger the more I think about them.

If you want to get literal about it, I actually have a story about a wolf. Yes, you read that right. I’m a Kiwi but I have a story about a wolf.

When I was 19 I worked on a summer camp in New York State, USA.

Here is a birds eye view of the camp just to set the scene. Check out all the trees! There are a lot of wild animals in those trees (and squirrels but that is a story I have written for next week!)

I was walking down a deserted road surrounded by the woods seen in this photo with a few friends (picture one of those horror movie scenes, the sun has just gone down and it is eerily quiet). Soon it was pitch black and we had no torch so we were literally walking by moonlight. The dark shadow of a huge dog leapt into the middle of the road and started growling viciously at us. All we saw was the shadow in the moonlight. We were beyond terrified (there actually WERE wolves and bears in those woods) and didn’t know what the hell to do. I nearly cried I was so scared. I remember thinking I was going to die. Seriously, that is how scared I was. I come from New Zealand where the scariest monster you might come across in the woods is a possum or a giant weta!

What do you do when you come face to face with a wolf?! Do you run? Climb a tree? Play dead? I think I froze. I think I probably nearly wet myself in fear. It was the most terrifying moment of my entire life.

After what seemed like an eternity we heard a male voice yelling. Our ‘wolf’ turned out to be a golden retriever and the owner appeared out of the darkness, apologised and dragged him away. So freakin scary!

Even a dog can be terrifying. There was a vicious blue heeler that was allowed to roam in our neighbourhood when I was a kid. He was called Ming and he’d actually chase up. He terrorised the kids for ages before the dog catcher got him!Amy @ HandbagMafia recently posted…Marriage Equality & Misplaced Outrage

Yep, totally agree. We had bad rental neighbours with pitbulls that they didn’t keep contained and they were so scary, I wouldn’t even go out to my letterbox for months in case one was around. It killed the neighbours cat and then got put down (thankfully, not that I condone killing animals but they were not nice dogs).

I used to be fearless. I travelled solo around the world…I skydived (twice) and I jumped off a very high, rickety bamboo tower into a river in Laos once. These days, I completely relate to your story. As I’m getting older and there’s ‘more at stake’, I’m much more careful with my safety and sometimes get quite anxious about the safety of my family as well. I usually ‘feel the fear’ and do it anyway because I hate things beating me – but like you, the anxiety levels go through the roof.

You may laugh but the last time I was really scared was on the Mickey Mouse ferris wheel at California Adventure Park. I’m not good with ferris wheels at the best of times but this one is different! The carriage moves…it rocks, it rolls and it slides. Utter freak out and fear. My husband still laughs at me about it.

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About my blog

I love to have a good laugh (often at my own expense!) and entertain while also delving into the more serious side of life at times too. My blog is a hodge podge of parenting these two little monkeys, humour, funny anecdotes, inspiration, coffee (you will see this as a recurring theme!) and life in general.